How You Get To Thunderdome! The Apache Racer Is One Badass Custom Bicycle

Concept bikes come in a few flavors—godownthatproverbialrabbithole, ifyoudare—but the rarest one may be the Apocalyptic Battle Rat Rod. This fierce fixed-gear is made by Antoine Hotermans of McFly Customs in Belgium. Known as the Apache Racer, it's stripped down way past the normal hyper-simple classic profile to the point of architectural absurdity, with plenty of odd flair added back in. Hotermans' work shows plenty of love for traditional lines, like the direct nod to Café Racer motorcycles, and much of his work includes vintage parts and found frames. Meanwhile, the total design somehow turns out aggressively modern.

The double seat tube is a slick touch to get that back wheel sucked in. And you have to love an integrated seatmast—stiff yet compliant! While I can't anticipate how well cold rolled square stock rides, this thing looks like it goes faster than an erector set should. And while we'd love to see some modular, pegboard-style attachable accessories, we could also stand to leave well enough alone.

Campagnolo cranks done up custom

Is this where the flames and spikes shoot from?

Check out more sweet bike and motorcycle projects at the Mcfly Custom projects Facebook page.

5 Comments

This looks like a badly-crafted nightmare to ride. Slag still on the welds, very questionable material selection (how long will those skinny perforated chain stays last without cracking?), and yeah, stress risers from the holes in the stem. Cranks are pretty though.
In context with the sloppy construction, the style cues that the designer is calling in here seem like a mess. 30's American motorcycles? IDK man. There are framebuilders (Frances Cycles off the top of my head) who make split seat tube frames that are better-executed than this in like, every way.

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